It is important for a manufacturer to test its products before releasing them to the public to ensure that the products function reliably when released. Faulty or dysfunctional products can often cause consumer confidence in the manufacturer to decrease, and in addition, can have costly repercussions for the manufacturer consisting of, among other things, product recalls, product liability suits, and the like. However, thorough testing of consumer products can be realized through the use of HALT fixtures.
HALT fixtures are designed to test products to uncover design defects and weaknesses in electronic and electro-mechanical assemblies by applying extreme vibrational and thermal stresses to the product. The thermal stresses can consist of rapid and extreme temperature changes. Through the application of such stresses to a product during HALT testing, the HALT fixture can emulate in a brief time frame (i.e., a few days or hours) the entire lifetime of stresses that a product will typically undergo during conventional use.